"Suning Son" Zhang Kangyang, waiting for emergency money

Business figures

2024-04-23 20:23Posted on the official account of Beijing Business People

Author: Zhao Yichuan

来源：商业人物（ID：biz-leaders）

The day just passed, Zhang Kangyang should have been very excited, his team won the Serie A championship.

In the early morning of this morning, Beijing time, in the 33rd round of Serie A, Inter Milan defeated the rival AC Milan and won the Serie A championship this season five rounds ahead of schedule. Since becoming president of the club in 2018, Zhang Kangyang's Inter Milan have won a total of seven titles, ranking third in team history.

Before this focus race, Zhang Kangyang appeared at the F1 Shanghai race, which was his first appearance after a long time. He took photos with celebrities from all walks of life, gave interviews in English, and looked in a good mood. After the team won the championship, according to Italian media reports, Zhang Kangyang prepared a bonus of 3 million euros to reward the players.

Compared with Jiangsu Suning, which won the Chinese Super League in 2021 but was disbanded, the Inter players are much luckier.

In the past two or three years, Inter's fortunes have also wavered as Suning has fallen into a liquidity crisis. Rumors of Zhang's father and son selling Inter are endless. In order to maintain the operation of the team, Inter Milan borrowed 275 million euros from Oaktree Capital of the United States in 2021, with an annual interest rate of 12%, and agreed to pay the principal and interest after three years. Calculate it, that is, it expires in May this year. If not, control of Inter will be handed over to someone else.

Coincidentally, Oaktree Capital claims to be the world's largest non-performing asset investment institution, investing in those assets that are in deep trouble. Its owner is Howard Marks, a well-known figure in investment circles. In addition to lending money to Suning, Oaktree Capital also intervened in Evergrande's crisis in 2022.

Mr. Zhang had hoped to negotiate with Oaktree to extend the loan until 2027 at the cost of paying higher interest. But this proposal should not have received a response from the other side. After all, Howard Marks is playing finance, not football. Zhang's father and son can only urgently find other ways.

According to Italian media reports, Zhang Kangyang recently reached an agreement with an American fund to raise $400 million over three years. The money was more than enough to repay Oaktree's loan, and Inter's control was not sidelined. Undoubtedly, it is an emergency money.

After Inter Milan won the championship this time, the discussion about Zhang Kangyang in the football world may be reduced. As the youngest president in the history of Inter, his qualifications and abilities have been questioned, coupled with Suning's debt problems, Inter's prospects were once not optimistic. However, a few years have passed, at least in terms of results, Zhang Kangyang has indeed not become a ticket player.

For Suning now, Inter is definitely a high-quality asset, but in the face of a loan of only two or three billion euros, it is still difficult to repay. Zhang Jindong, who stood behind the scenes to support his son, was not having a good time.

According to ST Tesco's previous financial report, its net loss last year was 4.2 billion yuan, and it was unable to get out of the quagmire. Fortunately, the amount of losses is gradually decreasing, and there is a glimmer of hope. At the close of trading today, ST Tesco's share price fell to 1.5 yuan, with a total market capitalization of 13.9 billion. At the historical high, the market value of the company, which was still called Suning Yunshang at that time, soared to 160 billion. Now, the books are seriously shrinking.

Looking back, Suning's defeat is also a business story of stepping on thunder due to radical expansion. Before the rise of e-commerce platforms, Suning and Gome's offline hypermarket models used to be infinitely beautiful. even gave birth to China's richest man - Huang Guangyu. When the Internet e-commerce platform became popular, the Suning model gradually fell behind, and the retail industry was reshuffled. Zhang Jindong had to move closer to the Internet, and Suning Tesco changed its name to Suning Cloud Business back then, which is an example.

In those years, Boss Zhang, who had money in his hands, not only sold electrical appliances online, but also made a series of diversified investments, such as maternal and child e-commerce, video websites, group buying websites, e-sports platforms, express delivery and sports industries. It shows that under the scenery, there have always been hidden dangers. Statistics show that since 2014, Suning Tesco's non-net profit has been negative, which shows that the plate is very large, but it is not profitable.

Later, Zhang Kangyang was involved in a debt dispute with CCB, and it was during this period that he began. In August 2020, Zhang Kangyang signed a loan agreement with CCB to invest in the Suning Xiaodian project. The project was launched in 2017 and expanded violently, but eventually fell through. Zhang Kangyang was unable to repay the loan in time, and was publicly collected by the CCB and went to court.

By 2021, Zhang Jindong finally stepped on the brakes. He said that for businesses that are not in the main track of retail, they should be closed and cut. However, it was too late, and after the introduction of external investment in the same year, Zhang Jindong resigned as chairman of Suning Tesco and only hung an honorary title. This position was taken over by Ali, one of the employers.

In the two years since, Mr. Zhang has hardly been seen.

The turning point did not occur until the first half of last year, when the chairman of Suning Tesco was replaced again, and it was controlled by someone from Suning. Zhang Jindong also became active, began to meet frequently with home appliance brands, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, he appeared more and more inside and outside the occasion, arranging the arrangement of work. In his words, Suning's darkest moment has passed, and his fate is still in his own hands. It's another drama about the return of the founder.

According to Zhang Jindong's intention, Suning wants to refocus on the 3C business of home appliances, and puts forward the goal of making a profit this year. He is no longer obsessed with the Internet, but wants to "stabilize the offline fundamentals", saying that this is the top priority. In addition, Suning will continue to advance into the sinking market, which is the second priority after stabilizing the fundamentals in Zhang Jindong's view.

Although the action is very large, I have to say that it is difficult to come back to that era that belongs to Suning. The imagination of retail hypermarkets can only be said to be better than nothing. Now is the era of traffic, and neither Zhang Jindong himself nor the Suning brand seems to have an advantage. After Huang Guangyu was released from prison, he also vowed to regain the glory of the country within 18 months, but the chances proved too slim.

Compared with his father, who is moving forward with weight, the 31-year-old Zhang Kangyang is much more comfortable on Inter's own land. Netizens' comments on him have become more and more tolerant, and he led Inter Milan to the top, which is the indomitable story of the down-and-out boss that many people love to watch, and this character is also much more likable.

Of course, he also has to continue to worry, that is, after three years, will the new loan due in time be repaid?

*Header Picture | Visual China

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